A few days ago, two interns for web development and design was transferred to my branch office where I work as a digital marketer and graphic design. While making an inquiry on if they had a basic knowledge or if they had a basic idea of what digital marketing was?
One of the interns immediately spoke up, saying it was all about using social media platforms to market one's product or services. He further claimed it was an easy thing has he once had advertised something online before and found it very easy than the normal conventional marketing system which I believe he meant "store to store" marketing which is very common in Nigeria here.
I was like ehn!!!!! easy ke?

But I wasn't surprise of what he thought digital marketing was, I too was in that position where I thought digital marketing was just limited to social media marketing not knowing that there were others aside from the social media.

Thank God the guy had not actually applied for a job and claim to be an expert in the field. He would have not only embarrassed himself but would have spent unnecessary stress going to the interview only to find out the other strange lands of digital marketing.

But first, before we go into the strange lands or other areas of digital marketing,

What is digital marketing?

I am going to pick two definitions of buttress my point Wikipedia and Hubspot

Digital marketing (also known as data-driven marketing) is an umbrella term for the marketing of products or services using digital technologies, mainly on the Internet, but also including mobile phones, display advertising, and any other digital medium.

Then let us take a look from one of my favorites blogs definitions...Hubspot

Digital
marketing is an umbrella term for all of your online marketing efforts.
Businesses leverage digital channels such as Google search, social media,e-mail, and their websites to connect with their current and
prospective customers.

If you look at the two definitions you will notice that they are very similar in definition but the later definition help introduced other channels, which digital marketing covers, thus opening our eyes to the fact that DMM isn't just limited to social media alone but covers every area of the internet as long as people are there.

According to a friend of mine, DMM gives us the opportunity to reach customers that we can't reach on land.

Digital marketing in my own simple definition is the ability to reach your customer through the different online or internet channels.
And what are these channels?
1. Social media platforms; that is facebook, twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, google+, and so on
2. Email Marketing
3. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
4. Pay Per Click marketing (AdWords, Facebook ad campaigns and other search engines and social campaigns that involve you spending money)
5. Mobile Marketing
6 Content Marketing and so on to mention a few.

Why do we need DMM...

Understandably, Nigeria is the largest country in Africa and has the highest internet users online according to a statistic carried out by Digitxplus I saw on Vanguard.
To be precise the stats placed Nigeria at no 1 position in Africa and eight in the world claiming that 63 million Nigerians use the internet every day.
With these huge number of internet users, lies the opportunity to market your goods.
so here are the reasons why we need DMM services
1. Our customers spend most of their time online. they are on facebook, twitter, Instagram and snap chat. they have emails. they like stories, subscribe to instant news blogs and so on

2. With the internet and cheap subscription rate offer by some mobile giant in Nigeria particularly Globalcom. People now get their news and gossips through the internet even the internet has made discussions across borders easy.

3. We need to advertise where our customers are, and they are online.

4. Companies are now aware of the changes in the marketing world and the need to fight for customers who now just don't want to buy a product but also want to have that connection with the makers of the product.So these companies are ready to pay high for expert digital marketers.

Who can learn digital marketing?

Anyone can learn digital marketing (i studied History and international studies). All you need is an internet connection and your laptop.

How can I learn it?

you can either learn it as a self-learner through online blogs and other internet websites. search on Google.s
But the best way to learn this is through self-learning by having a guide around you or through professional services such as Ultra Media Solutions (UMS) in Nigeria.
Digital Marketing is a fast changing world and new trends and tactics are constantly coming up. So digital marketing requires continuous study and updates.